mostly harmless books

Just random thoughts so far. I’d had (and ignored) City of Pearl by Karen Traviss for years when I was asked to read it and the following two books in the series, for work. I was pretty dissapointed with SF in general at the time, after a couple of much-praised books I didn’t like, so I was expecting to trudge through these. I was blown away.

It is classic SF in some aspects: we’ve got humans and aliens, FTL travel, high-tech guns and communications and everything… but it’s not Star Trek. First off, it’s got an environmental theme, which would’ve been enough to get me interested. But it’s also got ethical dilemmas that make you (well, me) really think. It’s got relationships (and alien sex! :D). It’s got drama. It’s got more moral dilemmas. It’s got a bunch of different characters, but I like them so much it’s impossible to decide on a favorite. It’s got a writer who, judging by her background (journalism, military-type stuff), knows what she’s writing about. And she does it in the most awesome British English!

I’m halfway through book 5 (Ally) at the moment and loving it. The only unfortunate thing is that I read the rest of the books almost a year ago and I’m realizing how many details I forgot…

It’s also a bit weird that a book about aliens and their thoughts can remind me so much of some of my friends.

Technically, it wasn’t on the road. I read the book in bed. But ‘in bed with Cormac McCarthy’ sounded too lame, and didn’t include the book title in an oh so clever pun (I wonder how many newspapers also used this title).

Last year I heard some guy called McCarthy won the Pulitzer. Good for him, now what’s for dinner? I don’t care for literary awards very much, my backlog of books is too big to let me worry about new things that don’t sound extraordinary.

But then a friend of mine (who knows about my love of books where half the population of the globe dies), told me it was a post-apocalyptic story - and a damn good one. Fast forward a couple of months later, I finally read The Road.

In short: I liked it. I didn’t love it.

It was scary sometimes, heartbreaking at others, intriguing at times… However, I missed some background. I’m sure this was the author’s intention, not to offer any clue about the catastrophe that left the States (the world?) almost deserted, but I wanted more clues. Maybe it’s a mainstream thing? If you explain it, it become SF, if you don’t, it’s “real literature”? It reminds me of Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things, same kind of story of a cataclysm with no explanation whatsoever.
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I think it’s fitting that the first real entry on this blog should be about my favorite writer.

Last month’s reading highlight: I read Lord of Light and I liked it.

Why is that unusual? It needs a little (personal) history lesson.

I discovered Zelazny around 1996. I was 12 and I think me or my brother got Nine Princes in Amber (the translation) as a present at the end of the school year. I was already a voracious reader and had just started discovering speculative fiction via my parents’ collection (which included stuff like Dune and Foundation). So, I read Nine Princes in Amber and I loved it. Then re-read it. And again. I honestly think I must’ve read it 10 times. Thing is, 1996 Romania didn’t have two things that are important for me now: many SF/F books and internet. So it took me 7 or 8 years until I got online and found out there were 9 more books in the series! You can imagine my joy.

Anyway, back to the story. I determined that Zelazny was a very cool writer and set out to find more books by him. Until 2007, only four of his books were published here: Nine Princes in Amber, Lord of Light, Damnation Alley and This Immortal. (In 2007, Tritonic started publishing The Amber Chronicles and they’re up to book 6 at the moment.)

So I read Lord of Light (knowing that it was considered Zelazny’s best by many) and was dissapointed. I just couldn’t see what the fuss was about. A few years later, I read it in English (maybe something had been lost in the translation). Nope, the translation was fine, I just didn’t get it. Then, last month, I re-read the book as part of a book club and lo and behold, it was amazing!
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Who: Me. Jen. Ioana is my real name, but I’ve been ‘Jen’ online for years, and ‘Ioana’ is too difficult to pronounce for English-speakers. I’m from Bucharest, Romania. Small country somewhere in Eastern Europe; it’s not just about Dracula and street children, you know?

I worked for a while in a publishing house as a copy-editor and I loved it to bits. I quit for various reasons and in the long run it seems that leaving was a good idea, but I still hope that one day I’ll be more involved in the book world.

My favorite writer is Roger Zelazny. Other favorites include Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Robert Holdstock, Jeff VanderMeer, Neil Gaiman… The list changes frequently, but these are the writers that have been on it for a while now. Recent favorites: Scott Lynch, Karen Traviss, Charles de Lint.

What: I was going to call it a review blog, but it’s not going to be that. My reviewing skills are not that good, and I’m not really keen on becoming a professional reviewer, so it’s going to be an opinions blog. My drugs of choice are fantasy novels, with some SF and horror mixed in, plus the occasional mainstream book thrown in for good measure.

Why: Because I love talking about the books I read. Because I can reach many more conversation partners in English. Because maybe I’ll get free books (why not admit it?)